Remembering Veterans:Writer Elizabeth Foxwell on the Roles & Experiences of Women in the Great War

In March 8th’s edition of the World War I Centennial News Podcast, Episode 113, host Theo Mayer spoke with writer Elizabeth Foxwell about stories and experiences of female service in WWI, many of which have been neglected or forgotten. Foxwell, a journalist and author focusing on the stories and neglected accounts of and by women who served in various roles in the war. Click here to read a transcript of the entire interview.

Behind Their Lines

From Behind Their Lines

Doughboy MIA for week of March 11

A man is only missing if he is forgotten.

Monday’s Doughboy MIA this week is Private Percy E. Southard. Born in March, 1897, the son of Henry and Minerva Southard of Reidsville, North Carolina, Private Percy Southard was already a member of the 3rd Regiment of Infantry, North Carolina National Guard, when America entered WW1 in April, 1917. His unit – Company G of Reidsville – was federalized on 06AUG1917 and sent to Camp Sevier, South Carolina to prepare for overseas service. There the company became Company G, 120th Infantry Regiment, 30th Division. Fighting strength for the units of the 30thwere then built up by drafts of men coming in from Camps Jackson and Taylor. Private Southard shipped ‘Over There’ on 12MAY1918 aboard the transport Bohemian, departing from Boston, Mass. Overseas, the division was brigaded with the British, first in the Ypres Sector up in Belgium. By August, however, they had been transferred to the British 4th Brigade, in the Somme Sector, to take part in the coming ‘Final Offensive.’

At 5:50 am on 29SEPT1918, the 120th Infantry was sent over the top in the area of Bellicourt, near the St. Quentin Canal. It was a section of the line the Germans believed impossible to break and the fighting was intense. Nevertheless, by 11:45 am that day the 120th had taken Bellicourt. The price had been high though – of the 250 man Company G, some 120 of them had been killed or wounded. One of the killed was Private Percy Southard. Nothing further is known of his case at this time.

His death was announced in the papers back home on 01NOV1918, while his father did not receive official word until 12NOV1918. His mother had died (ostensibly of TB) in June, 1918, while Percy was overseas.

Sawyer the Seadog, the mascot of the National Museum of the United States Navy in Washington, DC, hosted a visit from the staff of the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission last week. Sawyer and the whole Commission team will be working together in NYC for the upcoming annual Fleet Week New York, 22-29 May, which this year will have a World War I theme! Click here to meet Sawyer and the Commission staffers.

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Vincent A. Luza was born in 1895. Vincent Luza served in World War I with the United States Army. The enlistment was in 1918 and the service was completed in 1920.

Story of Service

Vincent Aloysius Luza was born on May 2, 1895 in Bryan, Brazos County, Texas. His parents, Vincent and Mary Luza, and grandparents, Baltazar and Francis Gibble Luza, immigrated through the Port of Galveston in 1873 from Praha, Moravia. He was also the grandson of Frank and Angelina (Honozak) Luza. V.A.

Luza attended Allen Academy in Bryan, Texas. He was drafted into the army in 1918 and was assigned to the 344th Field Artillery in Battery F at Camp Travis, TX.

On March 4, 1918, the regiment with its two batteries of guns and six hundred-odd animals marched out to Camp Bullis (Leon Springs) for target practice. It was at Camp Bullis that reconnaissance gun squads were first able to put into practice their gun drill, which had in the beginning been executed on make-shift carriages of wood and later perfected by work on the eight three-inch pieces which had been assigned to the regiment.

75th Anniversary of D-DayJune 6, 2019 at 6:00 pm – 7:30 pmMarines' Memorial Club & Hotel, 609 Sutter St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USAOn 6 June 1944, 156,000 American, British and Canadian forces launched one of the largest amphibious military assaults in history along a 50-mile stretch of the coast of Normandy, France. To commemorate the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the end of WWII in Europe, Brigadier (Retd.) Roderick Macdonald MBE and Dr. Seth Givens will…